Granite Mountain

I went to Starbucks to meet up with Dave at 9. At about 15 after, I was thinking maybe the boy was too hungover or something again. I called him and it turns out he was in the other Starbucks in the plaza. Fuck you, Starbucks! Do you really need TWO Starbucks in the exact same tiny plaza within throwing distance of each other?
We set off for Granite Mountain some 30-40 minutes away. It’s so nice to go hiking with an old friend, the drive is shorter and the hike seems less strenuous. It could actually be because the hike was pretty tame, but having the two of us talk our heads off the entire time does make time fly.
Apparently Dave has been hiking/backpacking since he was seventeen…it seems the entire world has been hiking/backpacking since their teens, where the fuck was I!!? Did the world conspire to be more outdoorsy than me while I slept away my teenage years? He mentioned that he had tried to get me to go hiking with him a good few times back in the days. I asked him, “Did I tell you to go fuck yourself?” He replied, “Yeah, I think you did.” Sounds about right.
It’s strange to hangout with an old party friend in a very sober environment. Every other sentence is, “Did I tell you about…?” And, “Yeah, it sounds familiar…we probably talked about that while we were smashed…”
I kept wondering the whole way up how this hike could be considered “Most Difficult” by the WTA…it really wasn’t that hard…until the end. As we neared the top, we saw a few different groups of hiker camping down for lunch, it’s rare that hikers make it so close to the top and not attempt it. We spoke to one of the guy and he told us that the end consists of a giant boulder field or trekking through a narrow snowy ledge, he warned us that the boulder field is a pretty tough climb while the snow ledge has a sharp drop-off to the side if we slip. I must have looked a bit worried because Dave asked if I wanted to just stop there like so many others. I didn’t even have to think about it, “Fuck no!”
Daniel had remarked a few times how tough I am, but what he doesn’t know is, I’m about 99% stubborn and 1% tough. It’s why I worry that I might get into something that is over my head, because I would be too stubborn to know when to quit and would end up breaking myself.
We ended up climbing the boulder field because my lame ass is extremely afraid of height and that sharp drop down with many boulders to catch your fall looks like too much joy to be had for me. Dave was in heaven with the boulder field, he's like a happy mountain goat there. This particular boulder field was different from any other that I’ve climbed up because many of the boulders were the size of me or larger, so they don’t form a tight pack together, so if you fall into some of the gaps between them, it’s a long way down, and it might smart a little if you get stabbed by a giant rock. Dave commented on how much harder it seems for me to climb because I have shorter legs, I told him I have a handy Swiss Army knife with a wood saw tool to reduce his leg length if he wanted the extra challenge.
As I scampered up the boulder field slowly, some dude without a shirt went leaping by, bouncing from the top of one sharp boulder edge to the next. Crazy. When we got to the top, the dude without a shirt was still shirtless. I dragged out every article of warm clothing I owned to ward off the chill and made some hot chai.
We ended up sitting at the top and chatting for a long while. I told Dave how happy I was that we can actually do something healthy together. When I told him that I stopped hanging out because I got sick of the “getting wasted” part, he told me I should have just said something, because he thought I was mad at them all these years. That’s a bit heartbreaking, I didn’t stop to think that my walking away from my friends could leave them thinking I hated them. I love Dave, he really is a good friend…I guess I was just being a bit gutless by disappearing. Dave told me even if I didn’t want to drink, I could have just hung out and not drink…I stared at him, “Seriously now, you think that was going to happen?” He laughed.
On the way home, Dave invited me out to join my old drinking crew, I told him I had to pass. Then at 1:30am Dave drunk dials me to try and get me out again. I can hear in the background, our buddy, Kevin was shouting random things that he wanted Dave to throw into the message. Some things never change.